As analytics aimed at helping companies make use of all their data proliferate, companies worldwide are embracing these new technologies and finding ever-more-innovative ways to use them. Those that fail to do so risk being left on the sidelines.

It is essential for companies to work with banking partners they know they can trust. Global Finance’s annual ranking of World’s Safest Banks have been the recognized and trusted standard of financial counterparty safety for more than 20 years.

Features : Best Internet Banks Conference Report

Advertisement

December 01, 2005

Internet Banking Conference and Awards Ceremony
Global Finance brings together leading figures from the Internet banking world to discuss the future of the market.

Jorge Vargas,
W3

On November 8, 2005, Global Finance presented its inaugural Internet Banking Conference. The event brought the latest online banking developments to the operations and marketing staffs of Internet banks from around the world. The program began with a presentation by Jorge Vargas, co-founder and director of W3 in Buenos Aires. W3 has been the web developer of many of Citigroup’s award-winning sites. Vargas focused on web-credibility and how credibility is affected by usability and accessibility. He concluded by offering advice on increasing bank site credibility.

Anup Bagchi, general manager and head of retail liabilities at India’s ICICI Bank, followed. He is a member of the core team that founded ICICI in 1994 and has since made it the second-largest bank in India and, according to Global Finance’s May issue Best Emerging Market Banks selections, the best bank in India. Bagchi’s presentation began with a description of the banking environment in India and then provided details of the bank’s Internet banking philosophy. ICICI’s approach has seen its Internet adoptions increase to a significant portion of its customer base.

Rex Richardson, general manager of National Bank of Kuwait, the largest bank in Kuwait and Global Finance’s

Natalia Major,
Tatra Bank

choice as the best bank in the Middle East & Africa, presented the bank’s multi-channel online strategy that aims to manage a customer’s experience and brand promise delivery. Use of NBK’s site has increased significantly in recent years, growing 50% since 2003.

Next up was Natalia Major, head of electronic distribution channels at RZB’s Tatra Bank in Slovakia. Her presentation, “Successful Electronic Banking,” opened with a description of Tatra’s rudimentary site from 1998 and finished with today, when Internet banking customers are 36% of the bank’s customer base. Major, who plays a role in the development of all RZB sites in central Europe, showed that even a small bank in an emerging market can offer world-class Internet services.

Nancy Todor,
Citigroup

Nancy Todor, director, global payments, Citigroup Global Transaction Services, followed with a description of a major new initiative for the bank’s treasury customers. Citigroup has redefined customers’ needs according to their new version of STP—Simplicity, Transparency and Perfection. The results are a payment flow manager including a set of online tools that give customers real-time information and control of their payment flow, and a payment investigation manager that provides customers with fast and effective case resolution.

Danny Peltz, executive vice president of Wells Fargo in the US, then gave a spirited description of how a bank located in the heart of the 1990s dot-com mania reacted to develop a super-site for its CEO customers. It was a time when Peltz and his team had “more money than time” to do the job. The result has been a single CEO site with more than 50 services and 28,000 business customers. Wells Fargo’s relentless pursuit of customer feedback has, according to Peltz, allowed the bank to continually upgrade and improve its CEO offering.

The Internet banking conference was followed by Global Finance’s Third Annual Best Internet Bank Awards dinner. The program first honored the winners of round one of Global Finance’s Best Internet Bank competition. These winners were announced in September’s Global Finance. But the real excitement of the night came with the announcement of the second-round winners—the best regional and global Internet banks. This year’s top global awards were taken by Bank of America for best consumer Internet bank in the world and by Citigroup both for best corporate/institutional bank in the world and for best overall Internet bank in the world. See page 29 for the full report and a list of all of this year’s winners.